The Hornets have just a two point last-second victory over Portland to show for their most recent slate of games, finishing them with a 1-3 record and an average scoring margin of -6.25. Let’s try to find some bright spots in the team’s play over the past week, shall we?

Week 19

1) Ryan Anderson, PF – 64 GP, 31.2 MPG, 56.9 TS%, 16.3% DRR, 6.9% TOR, .142 WS/48, 19.3 PER; Last Week: 1

Though Anderson missed last night’s game due to illness, he was essential in the Hornets’ victory over Portland on Sunday night. He finished the team’s lone victory of the week with 20 points on 15 shots to go along with 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block. The only true negative stat from his past week was his 5 turnovers against the Lakers last Wednesday night, though he did contribute 14 points (on 9 attempts), 6 rebounds and 4 assists as well. Another solid few games for the team’s most consistent player this season.

2) Greivis Vasquez, PG – 65 GP, 34.5 MPG, 50.1 TS%, 13.5% DRR, 35.4% AR,  12.0% TOR, .072 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 2

I must have jinxed Vasquez with my comments from last week in regards to his turnover reduction, because he averaged 4 per game over his past five contests, which was coupled with relatively inefficient scoring as well. He maintained his strong assist rate, though, averaging nearly 10 assists in those games. With Rivers now out for the season, don’t expect Vasquez to see any sort of break in the form of reduced minutes, as the Hornets will continue to rely on him quite heavily.

3) Anthony Davis, PF – 50 GP, 28.2 MPG, 54.8 TS%, 23.0% DRR, 9.9% TOR, 0.142 WS/48, 21.1 PER; Last Week: 3

Davis continues to shine as he gains NBA experience; he has arguably been the Hornets’ MVP in the second half of the season thus far.He has recorded double-doubles in 4 of his past 5 games, and the only reason he didn’t notch a fifth was because he was limited to just 17 minutes in the team’s loss to the Lakers. He averaged 1.25 points per field goal attempt (17 PPG) over that five game stretch to go along with 12 rebounds per game and 2.4 blocks per game. Only one rookie has ever averaged 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game over the course of an entire season – Shaq, and he played about 38 minutes per game in that season. To compare, Davis averaged 5 less minutes per game over his past five games, and only about 28 minutes per game this season.

4) Robin Lopez, C – 65 GP, 25.8 MPG, 57.8 TS%, 11.4% ORR, 10.2% TOR, .133 WS/48, 19.3 PER; Last Week: 4

It was a rough week for Lopez until last night’s game (which was pretty solid except for this minor detail). Until the rematch against his brother, Robin had totaled just 22 points on 26 shots in 81 minutes of play over the prior three games to go along with 16 rebounds and 4 blocks. His 15 points (on 10 attempts) and 8 rebounds last night look a lot better, but still a brutal week overall for Lopez.

5) Eric Gordon, SG – 27 GP, 29.6 MPG, 52.2 TS%, 14.6% AR, 12.4% TOR, .032 WS/48, 15.3 PER; Last Week: 5

For the first time in what has seemed like an eternity, Gordon looked dangerous in the second half of a game. Eric scored 17 of his 24 points against the Nets last night in the second half, including 10 in the 4th quarter, averaging a bit over 1.4 points per field goal attempt for the game overall. The rest of his week wasn’t as bright; he struggled mightily against the Lakers, failed to assert himself very strongly against the Grizzlies, and didn’t play against Portland (second night of a back-to-back). He only committed four turnovers in those three games of action, however, which was nice to see.

6) Al-Farouq Aminu, SF – 59 GP, 27.2 MPG, 51.5 TS%, 26.4% DRR, 13.5% AR, 16.0% TOR, .067 WS/48, 13.5 PER; Last Week: 6

Lost in the collapse to the Lakers was an outstanding night from Aminu. In the game, he scored 12 points on 7 shots to go along with 16 rebounds, 3 blocks, and just 1 turnover. After that performance, however, he kind of disappeared, even failing to score a point against Portland on Sunday night. With this kind of inconsistency, it’s hard to gauge what kind of contract or role Aminu will demand when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.

7) Jason Smith, PF – 51 GP, 17.2 MPG, 54.4 TS%, 16.6% DRR, 11.6% TOR, .093 WS/48, 16.8 PER; Last Week: 7

*Out for the rest of the season after surgery on his torn labrum*

8) Brian Roberts, PG – 61 GP, 14.6 MPG, 50.0 TS%, 24.7% AR, 7.9% TOR, .074 WS/48, 15.0 PER; Last Week: 8

Roberts went from looking like his role had been reduced to mop-up time (zero minutes in the two games prior to this week) to being thrust back into the rotation after Rivers broke his hand. Brian has performed decently since this occurrence; while he only scored 24 points on 26 shots in his 75 minutes this week, he is playing more like a true point guard than he used to, totaling 14 assists and only committing 2 turnovers.

9) Roger Mason Jr., SG – 59 GP, 18.2 MPG, 59.3 TS%, 12.6 % DRR, 15.5% AR, 11.7% TOR, .063 WS/48, 10.7 PER; Last Week: 9

Mason scored 26 points on 22 shots this week, but as usual, added little else of value to the team.

10) Lance Thomas, SF – 53 GP, 11.6 MPG, 55.3 TS%, 8.4% ORR, 9.1% TOR, .082 WS/48, 9.9 PER; Last Week: 10

After totaling just two minutes against the Lakers and Grizzlies, Thomas put up some impressive numbers against the Blazers and Nets, scoring 19 points on just 8 field goal attempts in 28 minutes of play. He also added 7 rebounds, 2 steals, a block, and an assist to go along with just 2 turnovers. While unlikely to continue, pretty nice back-to-back performances recorded by Lance.

11) Austin Rivers, SG – 61 GP, 23.2 MPG,  43.1 TS%, 19.9% AR, 11.6% TOR, -0.041 WS/48, 6.0 PER; Last Week: 11

After finally showing some consistent improvement over the past month, Rivers broke his hand in the first half of last Wednesday’s Lakers game and will miss the remainder of the regular season. Hopefully, Rivers can keep making positive strides throughout the off-season and return as the team’s most improved player next season.

12) Xavier Henry, SG – 40 GP, 11.6 MPG, 48.9 TS%, 13.2% DRR, 11.4% TOR, .015 WS/48, 8.5 PER; Last Week: 12

Xavier did not play over the past week.

13) Darius Miller, SF – 37 GP, 12.7 MPG, 51.1 TS%, 28.3% AR, 12.0% TOR, .040 WS/48, 6.5 PER; Last Week: 13

While the numbers for Miller may not look too impressive for the week as a whole, Darius reminded us on Sunday night why the Hornets rolled the dice on him in the second round of last summer’s draft, He scored 8 points on 4 shots against Portland (2-2 from three-point range) and added 5 assists and 3 rebounds while refraining from committing a turnover. He isn’t the most talented player, but he certainly knows how to play the game.

NR) Lou Amundson, PF; Terrel Harris, SG

All season long, these player power rankings will be presented alongside various “advanced stats” in order to more accurately evaluate each Hornets player’s impact (click here for a glossary of the statistic abbreviations). In addition, we also have created a chart with the goal of standardizing advanced stat categories to distinguish the good numbers from the bad ones. Hopefully, these tools give each of you the means to comprehend the advanced statistical metrics used in these rankings as well as other columns throughout Hornets247.com.

For historical power rankings, click here.

All stats were obtained from ESPN.com except for WS/48 stats, which are a product of Basketball-Reference.com.

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